[1] The cast was announced on January 31, 2023, and consists of 18 new players divided into three tribes: Ratu, Soka, and Tika.

At Ratu, the tribe elected to complete the "Sweat" challenge, with Brandon and Matthew dragging a net between two stations transporting coconuts.

The next day, boats arrived at each tribe's beach to take one member to a summit; Lauren, Matt, and Sarah were chosen.

They were individually given a 1-in-3 chance at an advantage; guessing wrong meant losing their vote at the next Tribal Council, but they could elect to pick twice.

During the challenge, Brandon was temporarily pulled by the medical team due to heat exhaustion and Matthew learned from Claire that Lauren may have lied about what she got from the summit.

Back at Ratu, Matthew shared this information with the tribe and many agreed to target Lauren; however, the women secretly wanted to blindside Brandon to flush his idol, bringing in Kane to help.

At Tribal Council, Carolyn declined to play her idol and Carson flipped, sending Helen home.

The tribe agreed to vote out Claire for her lack of contribution at camp and in challenges, but Frannie secretly considered a girls' alliance alongside Matt to blindside Josh, who had not approached many people strategically.

Josh believed himself to be in the middle of two alliances (Danny & Heidi and Matt & Frannie), but the four of them planned to target him next.

Each of them was given an idol that was good until all surviving castaways were living together on one beach, but all three also learned that they were forced to switch to a different tribe.

At Ratu, Matthew told Carson that Jaime found an idol in front of him, leaving out that it was a fake.

Ratu and Soka won the challenge, with Jeff asking Matthew to stay behind so medical could examine his shoulder.

All three tribes received treemail to convene at Ratu's beach, ending the tribal stage of the game and rendering Carson and Jaime's summit idols useless.

At the merged tribe, Va Va (a name coined by Yam Yam for the Fijian meaning of '44'), Brandon revealed to Matt that the birdcage had a real and a fake idol, leading Matt to deduce the one he had was fake and that Danny had set him up at Soka.

The losing team was exiled to Soka's beach, where Matt felt vulnerable due to leaving his bag at the merged camp.

The winning team received a note saying a new advantage was hidden in a birdcage with several keys scattered around the jungle; Heidi found the correct key leading her to a "Control a Vote" advantage; she would pick someone at the upcoming Tribal Council and direct them to cast a vote for whoever she wanted.

Carson woke up feeling ill the next morning while Danny sought to break up the Ratu alliance by targeting Lauren and flushing her extra vote.

Kane and Danny began searching for a new idol; the rest of the tribe soon joined them, and it was found by Heidi.

The Ratu alliance planned on bringing in Tika to split the vote between Danny and Heidi, then passed their advantages along in case of a potential Knowledge is Power being played.

Danny proposed that they target Frannie due to her strength in challenges, and a plan was formed to split the vote with Jaime to flush her idol.

Carolyn felt uneasy that her ally might go home, so she told Carson about her idol and mulled playing it for him to eliminate Danny.

Carolyn received two votes, surprising her, but the Tika alliance held strong and Jaime was sent home.

Jeff then informed the final five that they would be traveling to a new beach to start over from scratch, but anticipating this, the players had brought all their supplies from camp.

Heidi highlighted her risk-taking late in the game and how she used other players as shields to stay safe.

Carolyn discussed her physical and mental struggles on the island, using her emotions as a strength rather than a weakness.

After the votes were read, Jeff and the players discussed the game while enjoying pizza and champagne in a special after-show segment.

Survivor 44 received positive reviews; praise was directed toward the cast, their camaraderie and the level of strategic play, while some criticism was directed toward the abundance of twists and advantages in the pre-merge portion of the season as well as the predictability of the post-merge portion.

Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross ranked this season 20th out of 44, praising the cast, particularly Carolyn and Yam Yam for being "an all-time great character" and "one of the most delightfully funny narrators in the show's history" respectively, but criticized the season for lacking "jaw-dropping moves or moments along the way that stood out.

"[24] Although Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred criticized the season for having "some lamentable decisions and frustrating episodes", he praised the cast and their gameplay, which he states is "the best we can ask for in this new era.

Although he praised the Tika three and their arc throughout the season, he also criticized that said alliance's overexposure "resulted in gaps in the narrative and took away the emotional impact and investment when it came to those players' eliminations."